Among the Wretches
by Dainard Farr
Summary: Chapter 5 up! My name is Griffin Jacks. My squad was captured by locusts and dumped in this wasteland. Now thousands of Wretches are converging on our position. If anyone can hear me...please R and R.
1. Preparations

I had no idea locusts would do something like this

I had no idea locusts would do something like this. My squad and I were captured fighting a large swarm of locust drones. My name is Sergeant Jacks and I have no idea where I am.

My crew and I were dropped in a small base a few days ago in the middle of a huge wasteland. The creatures told us that we'd be dead within days, because the Wretches were coming. They gave us our guns back, saying it wouldn't help us anyways.

This small base has four watchtowers, each in one of the bases' corners. The base has catwalks around the base so that soldiers can look over the walls without exposing their bodies too much. The inner of the base is at ground height. Ramps lead up to the catwalks where the troikas were placed, one for each wall. More useless weapons according to the Locusts.

There are thirty-one soldiers in this base. There are three snipers in every tower, one man on every troika, and the remaining soldiers switch off patrolling and scouting nearby areas.

The locusts gave us plenty of food and water, saying that if we died before the Wretches got to us the locusts would have no entertainment.

Yesterday one of the scouts recorded swarms of Wretches running in our direction, being guided by Drones riding Reavers. Thousands of Wretches will reach our small base in a matter of days.

The base fortifications started today. A young private approached me earlier with a genius idea. He told me that we had way more grenades than we would need. He proposed that we fill barrels with grenades, place them at a distance from the base, and then set all the grenades off when the Wretches get near them.

A group of soldiers placed seven barrels about 400 yards from the base's walls. They filled the barrels with as many grenades as would fit.

"Hey, Fin!" I shout at one of the sniper towers. A man wearing a cowboy hat pokes his head over the edge.

"What up?" Fin shouts back.

"Can you hit one of those grenades?"

"An idiot could hit ONE grenade,"

"Alright I want you to shoot the four in your range,"

"YEEHAW! Thanks Grif!"

"That's sir until we get outta here,"

"Yes sir, Mr. Griffin Jacks, sir,"

"Fin! I'm serious,"

"Alright!" Fin shouts as he disappears from sight.

"_Hick_," I mutter as I walk away.

"I'm so sick of digging,"

"Private! It's this or die, which would you prefer?"

"This, sir!"

"Damn right,"

"Why we doing this again, sir?"

"This trench is gonna be six feet deep, with spikes at the bottom,"

"All the way around the our base?"

"Yep,"

"Damn,"

"Yep, but it'll be worth it to watch those bastards fall on these," The soldier says picking up one of the spikes, which was just a three foot sharpened steel rod.

"Where did you get all the pipe from?"

"There were six original towers, remember?"

"Right…"

"It's gonna be six feet wide,"

"What? How are we supposed to finish it in time?"

"Work _faster_,"

"Yes sir,"


	2. Among the Wretches

"Shoot the barrel, Fin

"Shoot the barrel, Fin!"

"Oh my god,"

"Fin! Shoot!"

I can't believe this! Fin is a fast talking hotshot and he's frozen.

"Look at all of them, there must be four thousand of them!"

"Fire the damn gun!"

"Right," Fin said holding up the Longshot.

The base is completely surrounded by Wretches, about three hundred yards out. The explosion blows everything in a one hundred yard radius into the air. Now Fin's in the zone he has shot the rest of his barrels, too. The Wretches have started their terrible screech. Everyone falls to the ground holding their ears. We slowly stand up to see the first line of Wretches plunge into the trench of spikes. The first wave was all killed until the trench filled completely with corpses, allowing the rest of the Wretches to reach our base. The Wretches climb immediately up the walls.

"Light the wall!" I shout from Fin's tower.

One soldier grabs a makeshift torch and lights the outside of the base on fire. Earlier we had poured gasoline and paint thinner all over the walls. The soldiers start throwing Molotov cocktails at the oncoming horde.

Two huge twins named Dave and Greg walk to the wall holding Boomshots. They are about to fire when the Wretches finally get over the walls. The twins drop their Boomshots and pull out their Boltoks. They retreat towards the center of the base while the Wretches close in.

"Everyone in the towers!" I shout.

One of the twins starts climbing the ladder into my tower while the other held off the Wretches. Once his brother was safely up the ladder he began climbing. Two Wretches jump onto his back and he falls off the ladder into a mass of Wretches, where he disappears, screaming. He must have pulled a grenade with his last breath because the Wretches flew into pieces. The only problem is that the grenade has destroyed one of our support beams.

"Dave!" Greg screams shooting his pistol at the swarm of Wretches.

"What do we do now?" Asks a private. I look around my tower and see that there are six people around me. Three snipers, including Fin, then Dave with his pistol, and two soldiers with Lancers. The other three towers had similar soldier setups.

"I don't know," I say, sitting down.

"This is a game," I say to everyone over the speakers. "When we woke up this morning there were three Junkers outside our base. The Wretches are nowhere to be seen. This is a game for the locusts; they are dragging this out for fun. We went out to the Junkers and found no problems with them. They aren't rigged to shut off, and they have full gas. We need to vote, stay or go,"

"There are twenty-two of us left," I say over the speaker an hour later. " Fourteen soldiers chose to go, eight to stay," I walk around through the soldiers, looking at the expressions of the soldiers. Four soldiers stepped forward, one of them is Fin.

"We are staying,"

"Fin, please,"

"We are _staying_,"

"Didn't you see what happened last time?"

"We'll just stay in the towers,"

"Forever?"

"Someone will find us. Does no one us wish to stay? We have more pipes to make spikes out of, we could make this a fortress,"

"I'll stay,"

"Me too,"

"No," I plea.

We hook up three troikas to the Junkers in place of the spotlight turret. I grab Dave's old Boomshot, my Lancer, my Gnasher, and my Snub pistol. I get into the Junker, looking back to see Fin, with five of _my_ soldiers. We drive of towards the east, away from where the Wretches had originally come from. Hours later I step out of my Junker and look around. There is nothing, anywhere. It is just a wasteland of dust and…dust.


	3. Run, Fin, Run!

"Oh god!" Fin shouts as the first tower collapses. The Wretches start tearing into the next tower while Fin shouts orders.

Fin and his friend Frank are the last soldiers alive, but their tower is being torn apart. Fin leaps from the tower to the roof of the armory. He rips the Gnasher of his back and blows the closest Wretch away. As he blows away the next few Wretches Frank leaps from the tower to where Fin is standing. He pulls out his two Boltoks and starts blowing away the Wretches. Frank drops his pistols and pulls out two grenades.

"Fin, run,"

"No!" Fin says as he continues to shot the Wretches. Instead of arguing Frank pushes Fin off the armory and outside the base.

"Frank!" Fin shouts just before the roof explodes. Fin sprints along the Junkers tracks before the Wretches can regroup.

"Have we been going in a circle?" A private asks me.

"No, look," I say pointing at the base in front of us. "That base still has six towers ours has four,"

"Then why is there another base out here?"

"For their next victims,"

"No Sarge, for their current victims, just a different group," I follow the private's finger. He is pointing at one of the watchtowers. "People,"

"We have been here for two days," Says the Sergeant of this new group.

"Then we need to go now," I say in response. "Thousands of Wretches are going to attack soon,"

"We should fortify our position,"

"No! We tried that and got destroyed,"

"What do you propose we do?" The Sergeant asks me.

"I say we create a convoy, with the some soldiers walking and some riding. We can put extra ammunitions in the Junkers,"

"Okay, I'll spread the news,"

"Sir!" A sniper shouts from one of the towers. "Someone is coming,"

"Just one person?"

"Yes sir, looks like a cowboy,"

"Fin!" I shout, running out the main gate.


	4. Three Hundred

We tear down a watchtower and weld spikes to the front of the Junkers

We tear down a watchtower and weld spikes to the front of the Junkers. We start the convoy and walk in silence for hours.

"Where are we heading?" Fin asks me.

"East," I reply.

"You know what, Grif? Eventually you'll have to think of a plan,"

"Like what Fin? I don't know where we are and I don't know how to get out of this wasteland,"

"Sir!" A soldier shouts from the lead Junker. "Come quick,"

I duck inside the Junker to hear a radio transmission.

"Enjoy my gift to you," A deep voice growls. "Three hundred Wretches,"

I sprint out of the Junker. "Everyone get ready. Three hundred Wretches are coming now! Junkers spread out, make sure the Troikas are ready. I want the Junkers to drive in a large circle around the foot soldiers. Beware of friendly fire. Now go, NOW!"

Everyone begins scrambling for their positions while other soldiers shout commands. A large dust cloud forms in the west. The soldiers on the troikas take a few test bursts before the Junkers begin their circle. I stand in the center of the Junkers circle, readying myself for a battle. The only problem is that no one in the center can see because the Junkers are kicking up sand and dust. The troikas start firing as the air fills completely with dust. I wrap my small goggles around my head and look around. I can only see about three feet in front of me. I squint to identify the shadow running towards me. It is a Wretch. I reach for my Gnasher, but the Wretch is already on me. I fall onto my back, one arm reaching for my snub, and one arm holding the beast by its neck. The Wretch suddenly flies off. I realize another Wretch pushed it off, wanting me for itself. It lunges at me and I shoot it in the shoulder. It falls on me and I shoot it twice more. When the second Wretch attacked the first, I had had enough time to grab my pistol.

I holster the snub and grab my Gnasher just in time to blow away the first Wretch. I look to find someone else in all this dust, and I do. A young private named Isaacs, Nicholas Isaacs.

"Isaacs!" I shout over the roaring Junkers.

"Yeah, Sir?" He yells back.

I begin telling him to round up the troops when a Wretch jumps up my back. I hear Isaac's Lancer bayonet and feel foreign blood pour all over my back. I stand up to see Isaacs smiling.

"Jackass!" I shout. I smile, but it slowly fades. "Get down Isaacs!" Two Wretches leap onto Isaacs, forcing him to the ground. I kick off the first one and blow it away with my shotgun. Then aim at the other. It is tearing into Isaacs' left leg. I bash it with my shotgun, and when it rolls safely away from Isaacs, I blast it.

I duck down next to Isaacs. He is screaming and swearing. "Isaacs! You're a medic, right? Gimme some wrap!" I wrap up Isaacs' leg and look around. I can hear men screaming, but I don't leave Isaacs because I know he is only sixteen, he lied to join COG. Tears are running down his cheeks, but now he is quiet. I grab some painkillers from Isaacs' bag and shove them in his mouth.

When the dust clears I see the damage. The circling Junkers had killed more than half of the Wretches, and the half blind soldiers had slaughtered the rest.


	5. Flashback

"We only lost three, but seven are in bad condition," Isaacs tells me

"We only lost three, but seven are in bad condition," Isaacs tells me.

"Not including you?" I say with a smirk.

"I can walk, they can't,"

"How many fighting soldiers do we have?"

"We started with thirty-one, when we got here we had seventeen, and they had thirty, minus ten wounded or dead equals thirty-seven able bodied soldiers,"

"I'm gonna check on everyone, you coming?"

"Sure,"

Several soldiers pulling Wretches off of the spears on the front of the Junkers. Two medics holding a writhing soldier, trying to give him painkillers.

"Isaacs,"

"Yeah?"

"Tell everyone that we need the wounded in the Junkers and that we need to get going ASAP,"

"Yes sir,"

"Oh god," I say after Isaacs leaves. All I can think of is my last big mission. "We are gonna die," I whisper collapsing. I get up quickly and find a medic. I make an excuse to get some painkillers and pop way too many in my mouth. The world swirls.

"Sarge, what's the job?" Avarius asks.

"We are negotiating a deal with a large group of Stranded that have taken some of our COG soldiers hostage," I answer to my squad.

"Why?"

"They've lost it. They are convinced that our COG's are working with the Locust army,"

"How many of our soldiers have they got?"

"Four,"

"How many hostiles?"

"Fifteen"

"Damn, Sarge,"

"We'll do it easy,"

"I don't doubt out squad sir. What is the setup of their position?"

"It is a standard Stranded settlement. Two large makeshift gates, seventeen buildings,"

"Why so many buildings?"

"The population was triple a month ago. They were attacked by the kryll during a Blackout,"

"Shit,"

"At each gate they got one troika, along with a makeshift sniper tower,"

"How did they get such great fortifications?"

"Before the Stranded were attacked by the kryll a group of soldiers came across them and helped, but after the attack the remaining Stranded convinced themselves that the soldiers had shut off the lights,"

"Why did they blame the soldiers?"

"The soldiers were gone during the Blackout,"

"Oh,"

"When the soldiers returned the Stranded took them prisoner. Alright, Jones, Fitz, you two will take the kid with you,"

"Ah, come on, Sarge," Whines the kid. "You don't gotta call me that,"

"Alright, boy,"

"Okay, 'kid' it is,"

"Damn right, now you two take him by the East gate, there is fencing next to it that you'll cut,"

"Avarius and I'll go through the fence from the south. We'll meet at this building in the center,"

"The only skyscraper?" Jones chimes.

"Exactly, 'cause that's were they got our Gears, alright, get yer shit together,"

The squad disperses, all but Avarius. "God Avarius, it's not 'cause you're a dame, it's 'cause I want us to get to the center building before the young-ins, you're my best," Satisfied, Avarius walks away without a word.

"Jones?"

"Longshot, snub," He responds.

"Fitz?"

"Hammerburst, boltok,"

"Kid?"

"Lancer,"

"Avarius?"

"Longshot, Avariushot,"

"What the hell is the Avariushot?" Kid asks.

"It is Avarius' special weapon, a grenade launcher. It fires poison gas grenades, frag 'nades, and smoke 'nades," I respond.

"Pump action, holds three grenades at once," Avarius adds.

"SARGE!"

I snap up and see Isaacs and Fin standing over me.

_Yes, there is an end to the flashback. Our Sergeant just needs to go to sleep, or take some more drugs .If you're reading this please leave a review of the story so far. Don't worry there is more action next chapter._

_- DAINARD FARR_


End file.
